My odd neighborhood

When we were doing the pre-school meet-n-greet for Maggie's upcoming school year, I met up with one of Maggie's new schoolmates. She's in a combined 3-6 year class, and she's definitely bringing up the rear in the age scale, so I tried to make a point of meeting the other 3 year-olds in the class.

While doing that I met up with a boy named Jason. He was notable in that he was about a month younger than Maggie, and he was actually BIGGER THAN HER! Now then, Maggie's in about the 97th percentile of the growth chart, so it's not often that we meet kids her size. Most parents assume she's five years old. Jason, however, was about her height and looked like he outweighed her by five pounds. He was a big kid.

Then I met his dad.

Also named Jason, he wasn't as tall as I was, but he was definitely a more imposing presence than myself (and if you've seen me in person, you know that's a pretty mean feat). If I had to ask myself "how well would I do in a sumo-wrestling match against this guy", my answer would be "he'd toss me outta the ring like a rag doll".

Since we've got so many current and former NFL guys in the area, I always wondered if he was a pro ball player. Shelly did a little looking, and sure enough, he's number 95 on the Cowboys.

Looking at his bio, it doesn't mention that his kid is attending a Montessori school in Southlake with my kid, so consider that to be insider info for your Fantasy Football campaign.Being next to the woods, we get a lot of wildlife. Possums, rabbits, and raccoons are a frequent presence. Our neighbors had a small dog that was mauled to death shortly after they moved in, so we always figured we had a bobcat or coyote in the woods. I assumed coyotes, mainly because I know they're native to the area and they'll attack anything smaller than themselves. Bobcats stick with smaller prey like rabbits and birds and would probably leave a dog alone, even a small one.

While driving to school a couple of days ago, we saw what was likely the culprit --a mountain lion crossing the road. He was pretty small as mountain lions go, only about three feet long.

I've gotta remember not to let Maggie walk by herself in the woods. A critter like that probably wouldn't approach an adult but might go after a kid if it thought it could get away with it.

We also saw a dead beaver lying in the road near a creek. I was rather surprised to see a beaver this far south. I've seen nutrias (large beaver-like aquatic rodents, but without the tail) in other local lakes, but I always figured beavers stuck with cooler areas. I'd seen 'em in Arkansas, but nowhere south of that.

2 Comments

Recommended Comments

My mom had a problem with beavers on their farm. They were daming up a stream and causing some problems. But sh efound out that she couldn't legally do anything about it herself. She had to hires someone to come in, capture and relocate them.